Hard drives for ICMP with Gen1 raid.

[James Gardiner]

We had a good thread on here about replacement disks for IMS2000.

ICMP-Gen1-RAID. is another and potentially difficult issue. These are older units and all likely no longer in support status.
Potentially as bad as ISM1000 and their horrid RAID limitations.

I found the document that lists supported drives, very limited. Really only "Seagate ST2000NX0253 Exos 7E2000 2TB SATA".
Some still around but I imagine not for much longer.

Hs anyone tried 2TB SSD, like comparable on the IMS2000 units on these?

[Kyle Addy]

Unfortunately, the original ICMP comes with a gen1 RAID. This controller is designed for traditional HDDs and does not support SSDs. We've tried and failed with most others unless received directly from Barco. Support will most likely end very soon as the next generation mFusion ICMP-XS releases in a couple months.

[Steve Guttag]

Isn't there an upgrade available to put in the newer RAID controller so you can utilize more modern drives, including SSD?

[Christos Gartaganis]

Regrettably, the new RAID controller is not compatible with the first generation ICMP servers that featured dual DisplayPort inputs and a single HDMI input. The second generation servers featuring dual HDMI inputs can be upgraded with the new RAID controller that support SSD drives.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Isn't there an upgrade available to put in the newer RAID controller so you can utilize more modern drives, including SSD?

Christos is right. The ICMPs with HDMI 1.4 are not upgradeable. The ICMPs with HDMI 2.0 are. I'm not sure about part availability, since the ICMP with HDMI 2.0 is officially out of service, but since it's the same controller as on the ICMP-X, I guess you should still be able to order it.

[James Gardiner]

So the optics here are.
If you purchased an original ICMP that cannot have a RAID upgrade. You better stock up on "Seagate ST2000NX0253 Exos 7E2000 2TB SATA" as, once they are no longer available. Your ICMP is finished.

I suppose that's just IT based equipment. But considering I have a unit 5 years old and in this position is... Annoying.

[Ioannis Syrogiannis]

That bears truth, if your intention is to go with the drives that Barco supports.
Yet, if you are not any more concerned with warranty, you may go the way of a similar 2,5" disk drive (spinning). (It would make sense to go for similar specifications.)
So, it will probably be another reason, causing ICMP to "finish".

[James Gardiner]

Has anyone successfully used non-approved 2TB disks in a ICMP-Gen1-RAID successfully?
This is a big problem anyway as in my region, there are no 2TB spinning disks at 2.5 inch available AT ALL. You can only purchase SSDs.
Spinning disks are all order from overseas in the 2.5 inch size. This factor is a big reason I am talking about this as its only going to become a bigger issue.

Vendors need to take a stance of, supported vendor models, and stop supplying expensive "Approved" drives (Which are basically the same drive as going direct), as eventually, just like this, just like IMS1000/IMS2000, once no longer supported SMS device, we have to go to this method of keeping the units running anyway.

I do agree that vendors need to supply a list of approved drives as typically this means the drives have been testing in actual use, to ensure heat and vibration issues are not a factor. But then again, as years go on, drives have gotten cheaper, and are likely, SSD based. it's far more likely than not a modern 2.5 will work as they become more efficient (less heat) and SSD, no vibrations. SSD run cooler than a spinning disk as well. The main issue is does the RAID card support TRIM command implementation requirements on the SSDs.

[Leo Enticknap]

Has anyone successfully used non-approved 2TB disks in a ICMP-Gen1-RAID successfully?

When we had one in the shop a couple of years ago, I experimented, for s***s and giggles.

Using a set of WD Red SSDs, it let me initialize them, but after the reboot, all the drive indicator LEDs were glowing red. Communicator recognized the drives' presence, but reported that the RAID was in an error state. I rebooted again, and everything worked normally: it let me ingest and play. Came back a couple of days later having left the projector on in our test room, and the drives were in an error state again. Rebooted, and it saw the RAID and all was normal.

So it seems that they worked, but would go offline spontaneously every so often. When they did, a reboot restored functionality, but not permanently.

The ICMP mk. I had the latest software/firmware bundle at that time, but that was quite a while ago.

[Marcel Birgelen]

The ICMP mk. I had the latest software/firmware bundle at that time, but that was quite a while ago.

I guess one of the issues with the RAID controller on the "mk 1 ICMP" is that it doesn't correctly handle the power states of the SSDs. Contrary to spinning disks, SSDs can boot up in a few milliseconds. I guess that the SSD going into a different power state due to being idle and the RAID controller recognizing this as the disk going into failure mode.

The lack of TRIM support will eventually also start to hurt your RAID array, up to the point that it can slow down to a speed that it's becoming unworkable.

[Christos Gartaganis]

Since last year, we have tested the WD 1TB Black drives on several Gen-1 ICMPs, and they have all performed reliably to date. These drives are still available for purchase within the EU.